Capitalising on green hydrogen to achieve net zero

Hailed as “fuel of the future”, it has now become the buzzword to help India gravitate towards zero emissions

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Hydrogen Mission on August 15, 2021.The Mission aims to aid the government in meeting its climate targets and making India a green hydrogen hub. On the occasion, the PM committed to installing non-fossil fuel electricity generation capacity of 500 GW, sourcing 50% of India’s energy requirement from renewables, reducing 1 billion tonnes of projected emissions, achieving carbon intensity reduction of 40% over 2005 levels----This will help in meeting the target of production of 5 million tonnes of Green hydrogen by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2070. 

Implementation of India’s commitments to achieve net-zero by 2070 may seem a long way off, but the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, is taking various measures to facilitate the transition from fossil fuel to green hydrogen.A call for setting up India’s Hydrogen Valley Platform was announced at an 'International Platform on Hydrogen Economy - An Industry-Academia Conclave 2022'---this event was held in New Delhi on September 30, 2022. 

What is Hydrogen Valley Platform? 

Essentially, the Hydrogen Valley Platform is a global initiative to optimise the hydrogen demand and supply by onsite generation and utilisation, to utilise the renewable resources effectively in water excess areas with geographical identity. The hydrogenvalley’s objectives will be achieved through cohorts of clean hydrogen valleys to combine a complete hydrogen value chain (production, storage, and transportation) with the aim of reaching critical scale and unlocking learning curve effects.DST under Mission Innovation and the Clean Hydrogen Mission is in the process of identifying and setting up 3 Hydrogen Valleys by 2030. 

Furthermore, the Hydrogen Valley will demonstrate how the entire value chain of hydrogen can be integrated. This encompasses production, storage, transportation, and utilization of hydrogen.The valleys will be set up in three phases. The first phase (2023-2027) of the project will develop, deploy, and demonstrate small-scale hydrogen valleys, which produce more than 500 tons of green hydrogen annually.The second phase (2028-2033) will involve upscaling of the hydrogen valleys with production of more than 5,000 tons of renewable hydrogen per year.The third phase (2034-2050) of the project will involve low-carbon hydrogen technologies being adopted in hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as cement and steel.The Government of India has allocated Rs90 crore for Phase I of the project. This will bring India closer to meeting its commitment to go net zero by 2070. 

The emerging opportunity for hydrogen in India rests in the ability to produce price competitive green hydrogen and enabling market creation for that hydrogen.One aspect of reducing end-to-end costs of clean hydrogen is by successfully demonstrating economically viable applications for clean hydrogen in different geographical onshore and offshore locations, enabling the scale up, resulting in further cost reductions.Another aspect is demonstration of different production, storage and transportation methods by working with relevant stakeholders to explore sector coupling and creating concentrated demand centres through integrated clean hydrogen valleys.Effective partnering and stakeholder cooperation during project development, ensuring continuous commitment from all the parties involvedand political backing from policy makers and support by the public are significant factors in making green hydrogen successful in India. 

Even though there are some barriers to the development of hydrogen valleys, they are not surmountable.  It could be in securingpublic and private funding, apart from regulatory provisions securing off-take commitments for clean hydrogen.Also, there are concerns such as technology readiness and performance barriers that include availability and reliability of products like fuel cells, electrolysers and vehicles. Working closely with the industry and governments, India will be levering its intellectual strengths in developing cost-efficient, scalable and sustainable technological solutions.  

Hectic inter-ministerial consultations have been on to developcodes and standards for best industrial practices, safety, product protocols and regulations in the area of hydrogen and fuel cells.